


Like No One Ever Was

by FollyOfWinchester



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Family Bonding, Father-Son Relationship, Fatherhood, Gen, John Winchester's Bad Parenting, Mild Language, Season/Series 06 Spoilers, Video & Computer Games
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-23
Updated: 2014-02-23
Packaged: 2018-01-13 11:01:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1223848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FollyOfWinchester/pseuds/FollyOfWinchester
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ben introduces Dean to Pokémon and they bond over Dean's beginner's luck. Set during the Season 5 Coda.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like No One Ever Was

“Whatcha got there?”

Ben looks up at him from the couch and angles the little screen in Dean’s direction, “Pokémon.”

“Huh.” _He’s constantly playing with that thing. Must be pretty interesting._ Dean flumps onto the couch next to Ben, “Mind if I watch for a while?” Ben shrugs and keeps playing. Nothing much seems to be happening. Ben is running some kid around in some grass or plants or something and every so often a couple animal-type things pop up. After a minute or two more of watching the little screen, Dean pipes up again, “What’s the point? What are you trying to do?”

Ben quirks an eyebrow, “Uh, 'catch ‘em all,' I guess? Have you seriously never heard of Pokémon?”

Dean thinks back to a shopping trip with his dad a long, long time ago. _They were out of rock salt, but needed to make a few more shotgun shells for an upcoming hunt. On the way through the department store, they’d passed by the toy and game section and Dean had tugged at his dad’s jacket and pointed, only to be met with a gruff, frustrated sigh. “We don’t have the money for that kind of useless crap. Besides, you’ve got your brother to play with.” Sam had kicked his legs in the cart and laughed while reaching up at his dad. “When we get back to the car, I’ll race you to see who can make salt rounds the fastest.”_

Dean sighs. “Yeah, I, uh... We didn’t really have video games when I was a kid.”

“Oh.” Ben returns to playing, but stops after a second and sets the game down, “Do you wanna try it?”

“Nah man, I don’t want to mess up your game. I just wanted to see why you’re always playing that thing.”

“It’s fine. This is Platinum. I have my old copy of Diamond and I already transferred all the Pokémon off of it. You can’t mess anything up.” Ben pulls the cartridge out and digs around in a little case until he finds another one. He shoves it in and turns on the screen before handing it over to Dean. 

Dean stares down at the little screen as a bunch of seemingly random stuff flashes by. _I’ve got no fucking clue what I’m doing._ “Uh...little help here?”

Ben, who weirdly doesn’t seem frustrated by Dean’s complete lack of video game knowledge, explains the “DS” and all the buttons as Dean sits and nods silently. “Here, I’ll get you into a new game.” Ben hits a few buttons and an old guy shows up on the screen. “There. I’ll let you try playing by yourself of a bit. Just let me know if you need any help.” He gets up and heads for the kitchen.

Dean shrugs. _Okay, let’s see what we’ve got here. Yes, this is my first nerd adventure._ He reads through some of the instructional materials and Ben comes back with a bag of potato chips and a soda. 

“Mind if I watch _you_ for a while?”

Dean shrugs again, “I dunno. Sounds pretty boring, but you do whatever you want.”

Ben crams a handful of chips in his mouth, “I’ve never seen someone who doesn’t know anything about Pokémon or video games try to play before. I think it’ll probably be funny.” He leans back and settles into the couch.

Dean smiles. Spending time with Ben doing something goofy like this, it makes him feel like a real parent. _Alright, here we go. I am a...boy. Yes. And my name is...D-E-A-N. Yes. Uh...my friend’s name. He’s got really dumb hair...S-A-M-M-Y. Yes._ Well, if he can’t see Sam in person, he can at least sort of hang out with him through this silly game. He skips through the text and goes about his business. _Man, Sammy seems like a real douchebag._ He gets to the briefcase by the lake and... _I fucking called it. I knew that little shit would get us into trouble! Just like old times._

Ben leans over to watch more closely. “Which one are you gonna pick?”

Dean cycles through the three options. Something about the green one reminds him of Bobby. “Uh, the turtle? Or is one of them better than the rest?”

“Not really. Mostly just whichever one you like, I guess.” Ben grabs another handful of chips.

Dean snags the green one and his first battle immediately begins, “Yeah, eat it Starly! Turtwig punked you good!” Ben laughs and Dean smiles. How could anyone skip on this kind of thing with their kids? He gets to the point where he can name Turtwig. “You can name the Pokémons, too?”

“Sure you can! You can name them anything you want, even rude stuff like ‘poopstain’ or ‘fartface.’ I think most curse words are out, though. Also, it’s just Pokémon without the S, like deer or fish or whatever.”

Oh. Hm, well, ol’ Turtwig had just gotten him and Sammy out of a tight spot and it did look weirdly like Bobby to him for some reason. _...B-O-B-B-Y. Yes. This is actually...really fun._ He continues playing and watches while his girl counterpart explains how to catch more Pokémon. “Hey Ben, so if I have to catch them all, how many different Pokémon are there?”

“A whole bunch, like over 400. You don’t really have to catch them all to win the game, but you can try if you want.”

 _Whoa, holy shit._ Maybe he should just stick to learning how to play before that. “Alright, so what are the good ones to catch? Should I use these trap balls now or is this all I get for a while.”

“Eh, the early Pokémon are okay. If you catch a Starly you can teach it to fly later and the Bidoofs can learn lots of other useful moves. You can always buy more balls, so don’t worry about it.”

Dean nods. _Simple enough._ He starts running around in the grass and the first Pokémon that shows up happens to be a Starly. “Okay, so I-”

“DEAN OH MY GOD!”

“What?!” What did he do wrong? He took like three steps!

“DEAN. YOU HAVE TO CATCH THAT STARLY.”

“I mean, that’s the plan, so-”

“No. Like you _have_ to catch it! Did you see those like, kind of, sparkles come out of it at the start of the battle?” Ben wiggles his greasy, chip covered fingers in the air at Dean. “It’s a shiny! That’s like a 1 in 8000 chance or something! You are so lucky! The first Pokemon you can even catch and it’s a shiny! Man! I’ve never even _seen_ one before!”

Dean looked down at the screen. Looked like the other Starlys to him. “So what? Is it some kind of super Pokémon that can gank all the other Pokémon no problem?”

“Nah, it’s just a different color than the normal ones. It’s just that it’s really rare.”

“Oh.”

“Wow, I still can’t believe you see one first try. Geez. Okay, so now you have to make sure not to knock it out before you throw a ball.”

“So should I have Bobby tackle it or should I just start throwing balls like crazy?”

“Uh...” Ben blows out a breath, “...you only have a few balls and if you run out it’s just as bad as knocking it out...so I guess try tackle.” He shuts his eyes really tightly and starts chanting, “Don’t crit, don’t crit, don’t crit, don’t crit.”

Dean feels a little shaky as he selects tackle from the battle menus. _Come on. I’ve killed so many demons and vamps and stopped the goddamn apocalypse for Christ’s sake, and here I am getting all freaked out about catching some sparkle-coated feathery-ass digital bird._ Ben cracks an eye open and they both watch as the shiny Starly’s health bar starts to fall. When it stops in the yellow, Ben lets out a relieved sigh.

“Phew. Okay, now throw a ball or two. I don’t think Starly is too hard to catch, so you should be good.”

Dean follows Ben’s directions and the first ball snaps shut just like it had in the Bidoof demo. “Did I catch it?”

“Yeah! That’s awesome! Congrats, Dean! You’re a real Pokémon Master already!” Ben laughs, “Wow. That’s so cool. High five!”

Dean slaps his hand and then claps him fondly on the shoulder. “Thanks for letting me play. This is pretty awesome!”

“Sure! You should get a DS, too, and then we could trade Pokémon and battle each other and stuff.”

This whole Pokémon thing was definitely growing on Dean, and if it brought him closer to Ben as a sort of quasi-dad, why not? “Huh. Maybe I will.”

“Anyway, what are you gonna name it? It’s basically some kind of law that you have to give a shiny a cool name.”

_Hm, a bird that’s slightly different from the rest of its kind and super rare...C-A-S._

**Author's Note:**

> Chapter 1 (Sparkle) is actually loosely based on a true story. I was hanging out with three other people, two of which were pretty Pokémon savvy and one who had never played before, but had just been convinced by her boyfriend to try it out. We spent a few minutes explaining to her how to play and concluded by commenting on shiny Pokémon and how she probably didn't need to know about them because she would pretty much never see one. Then, the VERY FIRST fucking Rattata she runs into after she gets Poké Balls, she's like, "Is this one of the ones you guys were talking about?" and it's a GODDAMN SHINY and we were all just completely speechless. I think her boyfriend just got up and walked outside where we found him hitting his head against a tree.


End file.
